Kaze Jr: A Cat's Life
by AnimeAndMangaFan
Summary: While on a walk around town, Rua discovers a cat who he calls Kaze Jr. After taking the cat home, Rua and Ruka find out Kaze Jr is more than they had bargained for, as not only can the cat write, but it can duel as well. A One-Shot with Ruka/Hat Guy (Named Kaze in this) if you squint. Tag Force AU on Angry Mikage's story line.


It all started out as your peaceful, average day in Neo Domino city. Rua and I were out on our usual walk around town. I would enjoy the scenery, and Rua would spend his time scavenging for dropped cards. It was Yusei and Kaze who started him on it, as they both claimed to have made their deck out of cards that they found and simply added a few keepsakes to it. Thus, in hopes of besting the two fairly, Rua had insisted we take a walk almost every day, as the two aforementioned duelists did.

"Ruka! Ruka, look at what I found!" Rua called out eagerly. As I turned to my twin who was sprinting for my side, I had expected him to have found a rare card. Instead, clenched close to his chest was a cat. It wasn't just your average stray though. Sure, it had shaggy brown hair like the rest and blue eyes, but it was adorned with a familiar red cap and wore three gold bars on its collar. Was it... Was it Kaze's cat? Did he even have a cat? But those were his things, no doubt. "I was thinking of calling him Kaze Jr! Can we keep him?" Rua asked eagerly.

"Rua, you don't even know if it has an owner. We can't just take it without at least searching for an owner," I tried to reason with my brother. The cat let out a mewl of approval, I take it, as it was struggling to get out of my twin's death grip.

"Aw... Fine! We can put up a few lost posters around town! But if an owner doesn't come, we can keep him, right?" Rua continued to ask. I couldn't help but sigh. I probably should try to argue with him more, as having a pet was a huge challenge, especially since we lived alone. Even if I did argue, though, Rua wouldn't stop until I relented, so I might as well save us the time.

"Alright, Rua, but the posters come first, alright?" I asked, trying to make sure that my brother didn't think we'd keep the cat forever right off the bat. My twin payed me no heed and began to ramble on and on about how much fun he's going to have fun with Kaze Jr.

Speaking of Kaze, I haven't seen him around the past few days. Last I heard, he was visiting Mikage, who called him over, and has been gone ever since. If this is his pet, then he wouldn't be able to reclaim it if he was off on some mission from Sector Security. If he wasn't and came over to reclaim the cat... What... what if he thinks that _I'm_ the one who named him, and then figures out that I like him?! No, no, calm down, Ruka...! That's not going to happen. At least... I hope not.

When I turned back to face Rua, I noticed that he was now no where to be seen. More than likely, he already went home to begin playing with Kaze Jr. He left without me..? I shook my head. It was nothing personal. He was just over excited because of Kaze Jr that he ran off. Speaking of which, maybe I should go after him... He might feed Kaze Jr something harmful by accident! Ah, I've got to get back home, fast!

* * *

"No! Kaze Jr, stop it! Don't touch that!" Rua yelled as he dove for the cat once more, only for it to scamper away.

"R-Rua? What's going on?" I asked, even though just by looking, I could figure out the answer. The living room was looking as if a tornado had went through it, more than likely due to Rua as he dove for Kaze Jr. Rua was currently struggling to keep his duel disk, some notebooks, and pencils out of the cat's reach by placing it on a high shelf, but somehow, Kaze Jr always managed to reach the spot. Although, when I think about it, why would he need to hide pencils and notebooks from a cat...?

"I... I just set him down, and he's been trying like crazy to get my duel disk! When I hide my duel disk, he went for the paper and pencils! I don't know what's with him all of a sudden!" Rua exclaimed between breaths, exasperated from all the running.

"Um... Did you ever just let him see the paper to see what he wants it for?" I asked. Rua instantly froze. Clearly, the idea never came to him. Without a word, he dejectedly went over to the shelf where he had placed the items and pulled down a notebook and a pencil, refusing to take the other items down. Then, he opened up to a clean page and set it on the table with the pencil next to it. As Kaze Jr slowly inched his way for the pencil, Rua and I both watched curiously. Upon seeing Rua wasn't going to stop him anymore, the cat took the pencil into his mouth before hunching over the paper and scribbling.

Kaze Jr... he... Was he actually using a pencil to draw something, or even write something...? No, that's just crazy talk...! My twin's eyes widened before he turned to me.

"Ruka...! Ruka, our cat is _drawing_! _Drawing_!" Rua whispered as loudly as a whisper would allow, as if fearing a shout would break the magic of the cat. My twin and I slowly inched our way forward to examine what Kaze Jr was creating. _'I am not a'_ was the words that were on the paper. I couldn't even place my thoughts together after that. The stray that Rua found could not only use a pencil, but it could _write_ too?! What else could this cat do!?

More importantly... Kaze Jr is not a what?

Rua didn't seemed as curious about the message as I was, as he quickly swiped Kaze Jr up into his arms and hoisted him high. Rua seemed oblivious to the fear he was putting the cat through, even though he was now frantically waving his paws and meowing once more, even hissing at points. "Kaze Jr, you're so cool! You're the best pet ever! I have to show you to all our friends!" Rua exclaimed.

"R-Rua, he's not our pet! Remember, we have to put up posters! Besides, if we show our friends, then a teacher might see him and take him away! Writing cats definitely aren't a normal thing! They'd take him to Sector Security!" I said, trying to be the voice of reason for my twin once more. I seemed to make a valid enough argument, as Rua sighed in defeat.

"Hm... Oh! He can write, but I wonder what else he can do! I wonder if he could duel! Wouldn't that be amazing?" Rua asked, excitement practically dripping from his ears as he spoke. Before I could even voice how crazy that sounded, Rua rushed away to fetch his main deck and a spare for our cat. The first thing Kaze Jr blew us away with was that he actually could duel. He seemed to know all the effects of the cards and rules, although he couldn't speak of their effects. He also had some troubles fumbling with the cards, but he managed pretty good. Too good, actually. Which is where he blew us for the third time today. He actually beat Rua.

Everything I knew seemed to crumble apart all at once. Our cat could write, possibly read, and dueled extraordinarily. What if he was some scientist's experiment, and we were keeping the scientist away from their results? But what if someone just claimed him to have this seemingly magical cat all for themselves? Maybe we shouldn't be handling the lost cat posters after all... Maybe we could have Yusei or someone bring it up to Sector Security, and they could handle it officially. Seeing as Rua was starting to duel Kaze Jr once more, I couldn't very well bring it up. After all, for all I knew, Kaze Jr could understand us talking too. It wouldn't surprise me after all we've seen him do. If I brought it up, he may think we didn't want him around and would run into the streets once more. So I'd let them finish their duel, and later tonight, I'd bring it up to Rua. Either Kaze Jr would find his real owner, or we'd end up becoming his owners!

* * *

It's been a week since Rua and I told Yusei and the others of Kaze Jr. When I asked them about Kaze, it turned out that he was still gone on whatever Mikage had him doing. Seeing as the others were busy, Rua and I became the prime care givers for Kaze Jr. Currently, Rua was off with Tenpei for another one of their excursions. He had tried to get Kaze Jr to come along, but the cat was insistent on staying. He began to hiss and swat at Rua when he came near before returning to sleep. Clearly, he wasn't a morning person... Er... cat.

That's how I came to laying on our couch with Kaze Jr sleeping on my chest. We stayed that way for a while too, until I finally got a good whiff of him. To say the least, it wasn't a very pretty smell. Now that I think about it, I can't blame him. We haven't bathed him while he was here. Well, that's changing now!

I sat up and lifted Kaze Jr up against my chest, in which he drowsily glanced up at me and gave a questioning meow. "Bath." I said that one word, and Kaze Jr nearly flew straight out of my arms in an attempt to escape. I managed to hold strong, though, mainly due to how I decided to hold him in the first place. "N-no buts! You need a bath! I know cats don't like them, but you need one!" I insisted, even though it didn't matter to Kaze Jr in the least. "Sheesh! I'm going to have to get in there with you to make you stay still, aren't I?" I asked.

This made Kaze Jr react even worse. His mewling now began almost constant hissing, and he began to struggle even more against my grip. While I still had him in my arms, I made a dash for the bathroom. I barley managed to lock the door before our cat flew out of my arms. His continued to hiss before making a charge at the door, where he began to claw at it. Now that we were in a confined space, it was easy to reclaim him and set him back in the bathtub, but even though he was trapped, it didn't stop his struggling. After a few times of him jumping out of the tub and me putting him back in, I eventually was forced to go along with my earlier threat and got in the bathtub with him. Surprisingly, that instantly silenced the cat. Although, now he refused to turn my way, and when I forced him to, he simply closed his eyes. Either way, beggars can't be choosers! If Kaze Jr was behaving now, then I'd take advantage of it!

It took nearly ten minutes to clean Kaze Jr up, and that's including the time it took to clean and redress myself as well. When I set Kaze Jr outside the bathroom, he continue in his silence. I wonder if I did something wrong...? No, I just gave him a bath... That can't hurt him at all, right? I pushed the thought out of my head and went to go get some food for our cat when someone knocked at the door. Rather violently. I cautiously walked over to the door and glanced out the peephole. When I saw it was Mikage, I opened the door without a worry. It was only until the door was open that I realized that I should be very worried. Sure, at the beginning, I had wanted Kaze Jr to go back to his owner, but after a week, I had started to get attached to Kaze Jr. Now, Mikage was going to take him away...

"Ah! There you are, you idiot! I've been looking all over for you!" Mikage snapped, taking me by surprise. I didn't know Mikage too well, but she certainly wasn't always like this, was she...? She paid me no heed and went straight past me. When she reached Kaze Jr, she roughly yanked him off the floor. "Do you know how much trouble I've had to go through because of you?! I know I said you'd be easier to deal with if you were a cat, but clearly, I was mistaken!" Mikage continued to yell. Kaze Jr let out a soft mewl before hanging his head.

"M-Mikage, what's going on?" I asked. Mikage quickly spun around to face me.

"What? I've come to reclaim Kaze," Mikage said.

"K-Kaze...? W-what do you mean?" I continued to ask. Mikage instantly began to laugh, which unnerved me quite a bit. After seeing how nervous I was, Mikage stopped laughing.

"Wait... did you really think this was a cat?" Mikage asked, in which I hesitantly nodded. Mikage was about to respond with something, but instead looked to the clock. Out of curiosity, I did too. 8:59 in the morning "It'll happen any second now," Mikage murmured. Without warning, she let go of Kaze Jr. Luckily, he was a cat, so he could land on all fours. What Mikage was saying didn't make any sense though. Kaze Jr was clearly a cat!

Then, my thinking was proved wrong once again. As soon as the clock changed to 9:00, Kaze Jr erupted into a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared, there was Kaze, sitting on the floor as he rubbed his head. Luckily, he was clothed, because if not, then technically, several minutes ago, I would have...

...

Wait a second... Kaze Jr was actually Kaze...? And... and I just took a bath with him...!? That means... Kaze... Kaze saw me...!?

"W-wait, Ruka! I... I didn't mean it! I tried to tell you, but Rua wouldn't let me! D-don't worry, I didn't see anything, honest!" Kaze fumbled for the words as he began to blush too.

"See what? Am I missing something?" Mikage asked. Sure, Kaze said he didn't see anything, but that doesn't change anything! That doesn't change that fact that he's technically been sleeping in my bed and technically just took a bath with me! I... I don't feel too good, all of a sudden. I found myself subconsciously backing up, but after a few seconds, everything faded to black.

_"R-Ruka!"_

* * *

_Notes: I was inspired to do this after revisiting Tag Force 4, a while back. If I'm not mistaken Angry Mikage, as I believe she's called, makes a remark that Hat Guy would be easier to handle if he was a cat after waking him up. With a little brain storming, I came up with the idea of Ruka having a Hat Guy turned cat adventure. If enough people like this sort of thing, I may change it from a one shot to a collection of one shots, or something similar.  
_


End file.
